MyCareer.com.au

Prof held 'for developing P2P software'

A Japanese university professor was arrested today on charges of violating copyright laws by developing and offering software that allows users to swap movies and video games on the internet, police said.

Isamu Kaneko, a 33-year-old assistant professor at the prestigious University of Tokyo, was arrested on suspicion of developing and offering free downloads on his web site file-sharing software called Winny, Kyoto Prefectural (state) police said.

Kaneko is also accused of helping two Japanese men arrested in November on charges of disseminating movies and games on the internet with Winny, police said.

Winny has become a major headache for digital content providers in Japan, with thousands attracted by its claim that it protects users' identities. The program allows users to trade files without revealing their internet Protocol address, the internet's equivalent of a phone number.

Winny users in Japan are estimated to total about 250,000, according to a recent survey by the Japan's Association of Copyright for Computer Software.

The industry has been lobbying police to rein in suspected copyright infringement for months.

The arrest of the two men in November was only the second connected to file-sharing in Japan. Kaneko's arrest is the first in Japan of a suspected developer of file-sharing software.

Police said Kaneko, a vocal advocate of file-sharing, told them he knew he was breaking current copyright laws.

Police are accusing Kaneko of encouraging other people to use Winny to change current notions of intellectual property rights. They say he posted his view on a popular internet bulletin board and offered upgrades of Winny, which he developed in 2002.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of up to three years in prison or a fine of up to three million yen ($A38,579.7) in Japan.

The rise of free web-based file-sharing networks over the past several years has made it easy for millions of individuals to distribute songs, movies and software worldwide. The recording industry last year began a wave of lawsuits against file-sharers in the United States.